Cohesiveness Issues

Cohesiveness arises when members of different social groups link together and bond to form one broad group. Cohesion can be graded into four main elements namely task relations, perceived unity, social relations, and emotions. Therefore, cohesion is the tendency of unifying and working together as a group to achieve a mutual interest to fulfill the emotional satisfaction of the group members. It develops from an increased sense of belonging, interpersonal attraction, and teamwork. An example of cohesion is the relationship between policing agencies and the community to form community policing. This is an organizational strategy that involves systematic use of partnership between the police and the members of a particular community. It enhances problem-solving techniques to address emergencies such as cases of violence within the community.

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Community policing is important as it not only helps policing agencies to prevent security situations but to get to the courses of the emergencies. This facilitates the reduction of crime rate in the community as the police can work with members of the society to flash out any suspected criminals who pose a danger to the community. For instance, terrorists take extended periods to mastermind their activities to ensure that they do not backfire during the execution. Therefore, they seek harbor within the area that they are planning to launch attacks to study the routine operations of the local security agencies and identify the most frequented spots. This makes it easy for them to disrupt many lives as possible and harder for the safety teams to rescue the victims. Through community policing, members of the community can report suspicious individuals when they detect unusual activities hence boosting the intelligence of the police. This goes a long way in stabilizing safety measures within the community.

Numerous group cohesiveness issues might be uniquely particular to police organizations. These issues include professional ethics, leadership, group influence, socialization process, and dysfunctional groups. Principles are based on individual characters and their willingness to uphold the values of their professions. There have been numerous cases of officers misusing their arms and engaging in extrajudicial killings. This is blamed on questionable characters that join the security forces but fail to reform their behaviors. This creates animosity between the community and the policing organizations hence leading to distrust between the two groups. Therefore, members of the community fail to trust their safety with the officers and opt to alternative ways of securing their lives and property. This has seen the rise of numerous lynching cases whereby suspected criminals are lynched to serve as a warning to other criminals.

Leadership may also stabilize or create a breakdown in the police organization's strategies. When a policing agency fails to monitor and control it's personnel, it leads to shortcomings hence crippling the operations of the organization. The body fails to hold its members accountable for their actions hence rogue officers who violate the rights of innocent civilians walk away scot free. This widens the gap between the police and members of the society hence civilians lack confidence with the entire system. Police officers are expected to maintain high integrity in their operations and protect the constitution of their countries. Therefore, if they are involved in any misconduct, the public watch condemns the whole unit. When officers maintain a high standard of profession ethics, they gain confidence in the eyes of community members hence creating perfect opportunities for cohesion to strive.

The third factor that may promote or hinder effective policing is group influence. Group influence plays a significant role in developing the character of a police officer. Thus, positive impact will build a more responsible force that will be able to interact well with members of the community and enable them to avoid unnecessary confrontations. An example of the effect of group influence is when two individuals from the same background and gender get recruited to a particular force. Receive the same training but when they graduate, they get absorbed into different groups. If one joins a good group and the other one joins a rogue group, this will determine if their training will be polished for the betterment of their services or corrupted. The first officer will be able to interact smoothly with members of the community while the second one will often clash with the civilians. Therefore, policing groups should keenly monitor their members to ensure that they instill good conduct in their operations.

Socialization can also facilitate efficient policing programs or hinder sufficient training to the recruits. During training, police recruits undergo various stages of socialization such as remembrance and re-socialization, investigation mechanisms, and maintenance. These trainings enable them to interact easily with other members of the society hence improving police cohesion with the community. It promotes a stronger bond between the two groups hence encouraging the existence of community policing thus improving safety measures within the community. However, if the members of the community or policing system are anti-social, it becomes difficult for them to interact hence limiting the flow of crucial information especially from the civilians to the policing authority. Therefore, policing organization should strengthen a social relationship with community members to avoid communication lapses.

Dysfunctional groups may affect cohesiveness in various ways. Police subcultures and the hardships that police endure in their work may determine their performances at work. Police administrators and the governing law restricts the broad parameters under which officers operate despite that the subcultures guide them on how to maneuver during their duties. This influences their relationships with their workmates and other groups of people that they interact with on a daily basis. However, often these subcultures affect officer's lives in different dimensions such as their relationships with their family members, professional, and social lives in general. Frequently, the officers may fail to establish a proper relationship with different people due to the confusions that the subcultures create to them. "Police officers may develop mechanisms to counter the isolation from the community due to the line of their profession and the police socialization process," (Inciardi, 1990). This means that police behaviors, beliefs, and perceptions are attributed to their organizational environment thus, group dysfunctions influence their attitudes towards each other.

Police organizations are likely to be cohesive due to the nature of their conditions and operations. Therefore, policing groups have a perfect opportunity to exercise maximum potential on creating decisive influence over group members. It is important that police bosses ensure that new recruits are given sufficient training and that all officers attend refresher courses often to improve their competency. This will help to minimize cases of police misconducts and clashing with community members over integrity and misconduct issues. They should maintain high moral standards to create a good example for the members of the community so as to win their trust. By following these steps, they will be able to maintain a good name in the eyes of the public for better policing results.

References

Journals

Understanding Police Culture. (2004).

Constable, J., & Smith, J. (2015). Training and Development of Police Occupational Culture. Police Services, 45-60.

Community Policing in America. (2006).

Websites

Police Chief Magazine - View Article. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2016, from http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_archCommunity Policing Unit. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2016, from http://www.lapdonline.org/support_lapd/content_basic_view/731